G'day friends and family! (And a special hello to my
friends from the Melbourne 2nd Branch! I just realized I had your emails
so I could send you a weekly hello. I hope this gets through to all of
you. :) )
This week has been so incredible in so many ways!
We had the privilege of having a visit from Elder Pearson of the
Seventy. He did a few zone conferences around the mission as well as a
special mission leadership council session. It's really an amazing
opportunity to hear directly from one of the Lord's ordained servants as
to how we can better our mission and ourselves. He talked a lot about
change and forgetting ourselves so that we can be fully devoted
disciples of Jesus Christ. A notable catchphrase of the meeting: "Things
that don't change stay the same." Or in other words, if we never make
the effort to change and better ourselves, then we will always be the
same person we have always been, and we will always get the same results
that we have always gotten. It seems like such a simple and obvious
principle, but I am constantly surprised by how often I need to relearn
it.
Since then I have been striving focus
completely on the Lord and be as in tune with the Spirit as possible. I
certainly have a long way to go and it seems like every time I think I'm
good at something I find something else that I need to work on, but
hey, eternal progression wouldn't be eternal if there weren't always
something more to work on.
We have been able to see so
many miracles this week.On that I'd like to share was with a lady named
Selena. We had been going through the records of some former
investigators and found a couple that we wanted to try to contact again,
but their address only had a street name, not a house number. So we
decided to do what missionaries do best and knock on all the doors on
that street to try to find them. We parked and walked up to the closest
house. As we were approaching the door, I had a feeling that this house
was going to be a good one. An Aussie lady in a tank top and long shorts
answered and said, "Hey guys! How are you?" We were a bit taken aback;
the typical response from Aussies is certainly not that friendly. We
introduced ourselves and she invited us in. She told us about how she
had had missionaries over every now and then before, but that she and
her partner were Christian and not looking to change. She knew that
missionaries do a good job and she likes to have them around. As we
talked with her more, she told us that she and her partner had had a
fight earlier that day and that she was having a hard time, but that
every time she struggled, the elders showed up. And now she was
struggling and here we were! She started to cry and we shared with her
Helaman 5:12
and asked her to replace "my sons" with her own name. We talked about
how families founded on the rock of Jesus Christ will be strong through
whatever storms Satan throws at us. Selena was so grateful. She knew
that verse was just for her. We offered to bring her a copy of the Book
of Mormon later that week and she gladly accepted. A couple days later
we stopped by with a nice new Book of Mormon for her with Helaman 5:12
highlighted. She said she was expecting people over in a few minutes,
but asked if we could arrange another time that we could come by and
have a proper chat! Sister Vermeulen and I were thrilled! We set up a
time to meet and she said she would try to get some reading done before
then. I know it's not an accident that we met her, and that we met her
now when she is prepared and ready to hear about the restored gospel of
Jesus Christ. I can't wait to teach her and her family!
I know
that the Lord prepares people to hear the gospel and He prepares His
servants to be able to share it. His hand is so evident in this work!! I
simply cannot deny that this is the Lord's vineyard and that He is
laboring alongside us. There is so much value in aligning completely
with the Lord and consecrating everything to Him, and then letting Him
take care of everything else. He is infinitely wiser and more powerful
that we are, and sometimes I think we forget that. I hope we never
forget just how much He loves us, too. What better Person to hand
everything over to than Him who loves us with an infinite and eternal
love?
I love you all so much! I know Heavenly Father does too.
xoxox Sister Larsen
Helaman 5:12
"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."
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